Imagine an average morning for Vic. It’s a lot like your average morning, until the point at which I proceed to check out LG and get started on some work. That seemed like the case this morning, even with Dom’s newest article, until I stumbled upon something that made me look at all those hints we’ve been getting regarding the possibility of a new Half-Life, in a whole different light. Read on!

Saurabh, or “Spitfire1945″, one of the Steamcast hosts, made this post on the Steam Forums, some hours ago. He stated:

So the go ahead has been given to drop Half Life related hints. Basically confirming what others have been speculating on the forums.

We will see where things go from there.

Saurabh is a very credible source. Not only is he a Steamcast co-host, but he was also part of the nine Potato Fools’ Day ARG Champions, who were flown out to Valve for an extensive tour and an opportunity to play Portal 2 almost a full day before its release. He continued making various posts on the Steam Forums after that, including a few tweets on the Steamcast Twitter account that have since been taken down. But he has made an official statement on the matter, clearing up and clarifying the whole situation. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Flow of information:

spitfire1945 <— Leveraged <— Informant <— Source connected with Valve

The information that I recently disclosed was 2nd tier information. 2nd tier information spans out on 2 levels. Leveraged is or was in contact with a contact that is friends with this Source connected with Valve.

The Informant contacted Leveraged with some information, and Leveraged wanted to see what part of that information could be shared with you while still maintaining the integrity of Valve secrets, so he came to me (Spitfire) to get my opinion on it. We are still not 100% certain of the credibility of the Informant… however, everything he’s said so far has been correct dating back before the announcement of CS:GO, so we’re optimistically hopeful.

He also clarifies exactly what he was told from this source, as a quote, without any changes:

“Gabe has given the go ahead to drop hints for the next half life game.”

Keep in mind that Saurabh is essentially acting alone on this. If all of this is wrong, he will take responsibility, along with Leveraged. Whatever happens, Steamcast remains a solid source, and Steamcast as a whole has nothing to do with all of this. It’s just Saurabh and Leveraged here.

Leveraged himself is a very credible source as well. He is the admin and founder of the Valve ARG Wiki, and he was also part of the nine ARG Champions. So I am definitely willing to give these two the benefit of a doubt and believe that they’re not trolling us, and that they have placed their trust in this source with good reason. For all intents and purposes, I think this might just be real. Let’s not be skeptical just for the sake of being skeptical, folks.

So what does this mean? Well, it means all of these hints aren’t just fantasy. It means they might be reality. And it might also mean that a formal Half-Life reveal isn’t that far away now. Otherwise, what would the point be in leaving all these hints? Still, don’t take this as a sign that Half-Life 3 is about to be announced. Don’t make unnecessary assumptions beyond all this. Just stay calm and hang in there! Maybe our time is coming, fellow Half-Life fans.